Speed up those Citrix XenApp Servers!

Aaron Silber came across an interesting KB article that had some very impressive stats hidden in it! This particular KB article reinforces a pretty standard Microsoft Windows practice of removing unnecessary items from the session startup process. Removing items such as the Java Runtime Update Engine, ICABar and Citrix Online plug-in from users’ startup can yield gains of 10 to 15 percent more users on your XenApp Servers! These tests and benchmarks were done by Citrix Labs and affirm the fact that some extra housekeeping and attention to detail during your server builds can really add up.

The KB Article mentions using msconfig to track down these unnecessary processes. I’d recommend taking a look at Windows Sysinternal’s AutoRuns for a more complete picture of the processes running on your servers.